170
XXI. Broke Again 180
XXII. The Rock-Drilling Contest 189
XXIII. The Heart of his Beloved 200
XXIV. Colonel Dodge 210
XXV. The Answer 219
XXVI. The Course of the Law 231
XXVII. Like a Hog on Ice 238
XXVIII. Parole 245
XXIX. The Interpretation Thereof 251

SILVER AND GOLD

_THE PROPHECY_

"You will make a long journey to the West and there, within the
shadow of a Place of Death, you will find two treasures, one of Silver
and the other of Gold. Choose well between them and both shall be Yours,
but if you choose unwisely you will lose them Both and suffer a great
disgrace. You will fall in love with a beautiful woman who is an artist,
but beware how you reveal your affection or she will confer her hand
upon Another. Courage and constancy will attend you through life but in
the end will prove your undoing, for you will meet your death at the
hands of your Dearest Friend."

SILVER AND GOLD

CHAPTER I

THE GROUND-HOG

The day had dawned on the summit of Apache Leap and a golden eagle,
wheeling high above the crags, flashed back the fire of the sun from his
wings; but in the valley below where old Pinal lay sleeping the heat had
not begun. A cool wind drew down from the black mouth of Queen Creek
Canyon, stirring the listless leaves of the willows, and the shadow of
the great cliff fell like a soothing hand on the deserted town at its
base. In the brief freshness of the morning there was a smell of
flaunting green from the sycamores along the creek, and the tang of
greasewood from the ridges; and then, from the chimney of a massive
stone house, there came the odor of smoke. A coffee mill began to purr
from the kitchen behind and a voice shouted a summons to breakfast, but
the hobo miner who lay sprawling in his blankets did not answer the
peremptory call. He raised his great head, turned his pig eyes toward
the house, then covered his face from the flies.

There was a clatter of dishes, a long interval of silence, and then the
sun like a flaming disc topped the mountain wall to the east. The square
adobe houses cast long black shadows across the whitened dust of the
street and as the man burrowed deeper to keep out the light the door of
the stone house slammed. The day seldom passed when Bu